


Quiet

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet Ending, Character Death, Dark, Despair, Friendship, Gen, Heroism, Hurt No Comfort, Insecurity, Matt Haag needs a hug, Past Character Death, Poisoning, Redemption, Russian Roulette, Self-Sacrifice, Survivor Guilt, Trauma, Unhappy Ending, different death order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-08 03:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15234078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: He drinks, and nothing happens. A part of him is expecting poison to shut down his system and put him out of his misery, but instead, the stomachache that he was beginning to develop disappears.I was right,he realizes.I made it.Matt Haag wins the dollhouse challenge. As he struggles to pick up the broken pieces of his heart and his sanity, he fights his way to aslightlybetter ending.An Escape the Night AU.





	Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by someone on Discord, who was talking about what an interesting story it would've been had Matt and Tim switched deaths. I love interesting stories, so...let's see how this goes!

"If you're wrong, you die!"

"I think...I'm almost positive I'm right. I'm sorry if it's you, but..."

Matt drinks.

He drinks, and nothing happens. A part of him is expecting poison to shut down his system and put him out of his misery, but instead, the stomachache that he was beginning to develop disappears. _I was right,_ he realizes. _I made it._

_Oh, God._

_Tim..._

"You were right, dude." The Mobster's voice shakes, but he still offers up his old DeLaGhetto grin. "Congrats."

 _No._ Matt checks and re-checks the vial, searching for the tiniest bit of antidote to save his friend, but _nope,_ he was an idiot, he drank it all, and Timothy is doomed to die. _Not Tim!_ screams his mind. _Please, not Tim! I can't lose him! He's_ literally _all I have!_

Before he can think of a way to fix this, Tim collapses. Matt catches him before he hits the ground. "Tim!" He sinks to his knees, his only ally cradled in his arms, tears pressing against the corners of his eyes. "Don't die. I can't face them without you. Please, _please_ don't die!" 

"Matt...I'm sorry..." murmurs Tim, who's already fading out. "Listen...you gotta stop...blaming yourself for Sierra...people make mistakes...doesn't make you any less of a good guy..." He's still smiling. Why is he still smiling? "Keep fighting, okay? For both of us...promise me..."

Matt can't stop himself from crying. "I promise."

Tim's eyes flutter shut. His breathing slows, then stops.

Matt feels as if a nuclear bomb has gone off in his heart, obliterating the last traces of hope in its wake. He holds Tim's lifeless body _(this is wrong, a guy like Tim shouldn't be so still and quiet)_ close to his chest, sobbing like he's never sobbed before. _This is my fault,_ whispers his conscience. _I killed them both. Sierra and Tim. I've destroyed everyone I cared about, and I'm still alive despite it all._

He remembers Tim's last words, and he suppresses his survivor's guilt.

The mermaid's daughter's doll appears. Matt gently sets Tim down on the couch, then picks up the doll and heads for the door. He hangs back for a moment, stealing one last glance at Tim. That goddamn smile _still_ lingers on the dead man's face.

Matt takes a deep breath and closes the door behind him.

 

"What the _hell?"_ screeches Lele as soon as Matt enters the parlor. "Why is _he_ back?"

 _I don't know,_ Matt almost replies.

Oli's mouth drops open. "That means...Tim's..."

"Dead," says Matt quietly.

Eva grips the armrest of her chair so hard that it looks like she's attempting to strangle it. "I told you," she says in a slow, fierce voice, her bone-chilling gaze fixed directly on Matt, "that if you came back here alive, we'd kill you."

"Eva," begs Oli, "please calm down..."

"No one's killing anyone," Joey insists.

"Tell that to _him,"_ snarls Lele. "He killed Sierra. He probably killed Timothy. He's working with the demon, I bet, and he's gonna kill us all!"

Matt sinks into his usual seat. With Tim gone, the spot next to him on the couch is empty and quiet. Matt doesn't like quiet. He wants everything to go back to how it was at the beginning of the night, when eleven YouTubers gathered for a party, when everyone was alive.

_"Saint Michael, the archangel, be our protection from the wickedness, and banish this evil spirit! Amen!"_

Eva and Lele are still shouting at him, but his mind blocks them out. He wonders: if it had been Tim who returned alive, would they be happy? Would anyone care if he died?

_"Keep fighting, okay? For both of us...promise me..."_

The voices in his head refuse to be quiet.

 

They give the mermaid back her doll, and then, it's on to the next mission: a veteran of World War I who wants to get his gold back. Matt launches himself into the puzzles. He still thinks he's doomed, but Tim's last wish was for him to keep fighting, and he can't bring himself to let Tim down.

Besides, when he solves riddles, his brain is distracted. He's too occupied with paper and fire to think about his failures.

It's better this way.

Once they meet Colin, the group spends several minutes running from bullets, blowing up snipers, and opening briefcases. Then, as they approach the lab, Colin shoves his rifle into Matt's hands. "Take this."

Matt doesn't know why _anyone_ would trust him with a gun at this point. Is it because he's wearing an authentic World War I jacket? Does Colin see him as a kindred spirit or something?

"Great," snarks Lele. "Now he can kill _even more_ people."

Matt doesn't have the energy to hate her anymore.

 

Joey and Oli are trapped in the lab with a monster. Matt, meanwhile, is outside with Colin and the girls, and they're being attacked by German soldiers. "Omigosh!" screams Eva. "Shoot them, shoot them, _shoot!"_

Matt starts shooting. Every kill feels more cathartic than the last. _That's for Sierra,_ he thinks as the soldiers fall. _That's for Tim. That's for Justine. That's for GloZell. That's for Andrea. That's for Shane._ The sound of bullets hitting flesh obliterates the dreadful quiet. _And that's for me._

One German soldier has somehow survived the barrage of bullets from Colin and Matt. He lunges for Eva. The Journalist screams and runs. Matt shoots the German down automatically, before Colin has a chance to kill him first.

Eva notices what Matt's done for her. A conflicted look scurries across her face, as if she can't decide whether or not she still hates him.

Matt can hear Tim's laughter in his mind.

 

Voting time is here again, and Matt ends up in a corner of the room with Joey and Oli. "We've all been in that position," explains Joey. "Eva hasn't."

Oli bites his lip. "Are you saying we should—"

"Yes."

Oli excuses himself, claiming that he needs to go have a chat with the girls, but Joey stays with Matt. "Are you okay?" the Savant wants to know. "I know the girls have been kinda rough on you, but...you don't still think we're all gonna die, do you?"

Matt shakes his head. He wants to say something, but he can't think of anything to say. The quiet within him is almost overwhelming.

 

"It's Eva."

The Journalist nods quietly, and Matt's heart breaks for her. It's a shame that Eva (who, despite everything she's said to him, has proved her worth a thousand times tonight) has to go into a death challenge. She doesn't deserve it. None of them do.

"And the second name..."

Matt is hoping against hope that he won't be sent into the challenge for the third time in a row, but he knows that his odds aren't looking good. Lele still hates him. Eva probably hates him as well. That's two confirmed votes for him (possibly three if Oli follows their lead), and when one vote is enough to kill a person, anything is possible.

"Matt."

He knew it. He knew it. He knew it.

Lele laughs. Eva, on the other hand, is quiet. When she speaks again, it is not to make fun of Matt for failing to avoid another challenge, or to berate him for everything he's ever done wrong, or even to make a snide remark in his direction. Instead, it is to protest that she can't fight.

In the end, she promises to come for Joey. Not Matt. Joey.

_Thank God for the small victories, I guess._

 

The gun feels cold against Matt's head, and when he pulls the trigger, he half-expects to see Tim and Sierra again. Instead, he hears a _click._ He opens his eyes to the same small room, the same game of Battleship, and Eva's worried face.

Might as well call out another coordinate. "C-7."

"No. E-2."

"No. B-1."

And so it goes, an endless game of coordinates and misses, and their voices are the only thing that breaks the dreary quiet. Eva murmurs "I'm gonna die" at one point, and Matt remembers a boy who insisted that this was never going to end. He wonders what that boy would think of him now.

When Matt finally gets a hit on Eva, the brunette grits her teeth, takes a deep breath, and takes the gun from the table. She struggles to keep a stoic expression on her face, but Matt can see a torturous sort of despair in her big brown eyes.

_Justine sobs and begs the group not to bury her._

_Sierra's face is stained with tears as she struggles to hold down the woman._

_Tim shouts at Matt to put his dolls down, a whiff of fright in his voice._

He wishes Eva would just _say_ something. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard to watch if it wasn't for the quiet, quiet, _quiet_ that haunts him wherever he goes. It's been quiet since he lost Tim. Of course it has. Tim was always so charmingly talkative, but everyone is quiet when they're dead.

She places the gun between her curls.

Why does he feel so _sorry_ for her? She wants him dead. She told him to his face that she would kill him if he came back, and frankly, it's a miracle that she didn't. She's with Lele. She doesn't care. She doesn't care at all. So why in the world does _he_ care about _her?_

She pulls the trigger.

_Click._

"Oh, thank God," she cries. She collapses against the table.

Tonight, Matt has seen more death than he could've possibly imagined. He saw Shane Dawson die a slow, painful, thirty-minute death from whatever poison was slipped into his food. He saw the gas-infested body of Andrea Brooks in the Ungodly Machine. He saw a screaming and sobbing Justine Ezarik get buried alive. He saw GloZell Green "twerk die," as Tim put it, caught in a seizure with blood in her mouth. He saw Sierra Furtado collapse against the bed, dead because of his accidental actions. And, most recently, he saw Timothy DeLaGhetto succumb to poison in his arms, the latest victim of this terrible place.

He doesn't want to see another friend die. He'd rather die himself.

Besides, this is his chance to make up for everything he's done. He killed Sierra. He let Tim die. He lost his chance to save them, but now, with Eva, it's not too late. He can save her. He can redeem himself. He can be good again.

"H-8."

"Hit."

"Hit?"

He nods and grabs the gun.

The voices in his head grow louder as he prepares to fire, but the loudest voice of all is his own. _I'm sorry, Sierra._ Tears twinkle in his eyes. _I'm sorry, Tim. I'm sorry I couldn't be a better man._

He pulls the trigger.

Everything is quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, Matt and Tim. You guys don't deserve what I just wrote.


End file.
